King's Lynn: The Lynn Minster, AKA, The Priory And Parish Church of St. Margaret Of Antioch, And St. Mary Magdalene, And All the Virgin Saints

It has a long history, too, begun in 1101 by the Bishop of Norwich, in penance for his having bought outright his ecclesiastical position. Nothing much remains of the original, but the present building dates from the 13th century, and it is a four star attraction, according to our guide, Simon Jenkins (England's Thousand Best Churches). Its central tower steeple crashed down into the nave during a storm in 1741 or so, and much of the church was rebuilt, omitting any further steeple. Its glory, mostly, is the variety of carving within.

Thus, with the Saturday market in high gear

Nice walk up

Unmatched west towers

Famous nautical clock, facing the port, told captains when the next high tide
would be

High tides in recent years

Old-looking font

Nave view

Quire

Elevation there

Numerous interesting misericords (butt-rests in the choir; as butt-rests they  were not
considered sacred spaces and thus could be decorated with irreverent and sometimes
raunchy images)

Green Man

The King?

The Bishop

Elsewhere, someone (a king?) running off with something?

The windows all are Victorian or later; the reredos, Jenkins
says, is a masterpiece of Victorian carving

Wearing virtual reality eye-wear?

A common pose on Romanesque/Norman churches here...I suspect it is somehow
related to the Sheila-na-gig; must research...

One of the largest of all brasses, anywhere, according to Jenkins: Robert Braunche,
mayor of Lynn in 1349 and 1359, and his two wives (serially), Letitia and Margaret;
at the bottom, a representation of his peacock feast, held for Edward III in 1349

Abaft the beam

Pretty, but Victorian glass

Ceiling

Church yard, all tidied up in neat rows

Interesting church, some Norman, some Decorative, some Perpendicular, some
Victorian...

Cockles And Cromer Crab In King's Lynn; Oh My

Our campsite was but a block away from Donaldson's fishmongers, and their sign was out for having Cromer crab, a local favorite, caught off of Cromer, some miles back up the coast.

Winkles?

They also had samphire, but I needed to use up the spinach; also had to use up
the Chablis...but it was Bastille day, so okay

Nicely dressed Cromer crab, with just a squeeze of lemon

King's Lynn, Randomly

After Blickling, we drove on to King's Lynn, on the coast, to see a church and for a couple days' rest. Increasingly, we are finding mid-sized towns that have designated parking for RVs, some of which even permit overnight stays. King's Lynn was one, and the car park was within walking distance of everything we wanted to see. And more.

Actually it was not among the more scenic of our parkings, but being right next
to the Royal Mail depot assured us of an early start every morning; and on the
other side was a great view of the Lidl's

I've read (and seen) that there is only one statue of Cortez in
Mexico; probably the same is true of King John in England,
and, if so, this is it

No one's favorite king, except maybe in Lynn, which he granted market town
status way back when

It was a Saturday and the downtown was busy; still a market town

Among the numerous kiddie shows

I think that's Judy on the left

The smallish Saturday market has been held next to St. Margarets for aeons

Quite few aeons, as it turns out

The market was mostly specialty foods; at this specialty foods for pets store we
began to understand that, King John notwithstanding, there is some special
weirdness about King's Lynn

Grab a six pack for Tabby or Fido; then make a YouTube video of their antics

The excellent signage encouraged us to explore further

Among the more attractive old buildings

From the volume of noise coming from this square, I assumed the entire city,
except for Punch and Judy and Stevie Spud, would be there, enjoying the Saturday
rock concert; instead, the audience appeared to be immediate family and close
friends of band members

International cuisine of the future; all through the east of England we'd been
hearing Slavic accents we couldn't quite place; turns out there's quite a bit of
Polish and Baltic in the area

There's also a Tuesday market we didn't stick around for

City hall and associated old buildings

Closed, and quite rudely, for a wedding

Vicki stands for scale while I fume over not being permitted
a photo of the hall interior, not to mention the relics

RAF Oulton

Blickling's more recent past includes the RAF Oulton bomber base from WWII. Blickling Hall housed personnel and served as a mess hall for the base. The airstrip was only a couple miles away. In the early years of the war, Oulton was home to light and medium bombers, Vega Venturas, A-26s, and such. In 1943, the base closed, concrete runways and other infrastructure were built, and by April, 1944, the B-17s and B-24s that were to pulverize Germany arrived. Blickling houses a small but impressive museum of those times.

Map of RAF Oulton

Huge model, 8 foot wingspan

"Chaff"--tinsel dropped from Allied aircraft on D-Day to confuse German radar;
I'll never forget being in a conversation one day in the 80s between two WWII vets
in Dallas, Bill Stallcup, who flew a USAAF bomber and dropped chaff that day; and
Jerry Stover, who was a US Army signal officer on the beach, whose radio
messages apparently suffered as much as the German radar